Air India may lose monopoly over international flying rights

New Delhi: Air India’s monopoly over bilaterals, or international flying rights, may soon come to an end. The government is considering doing away with the special ‘Right to First Refusal’ privilege enjoyed by the state-owned carrier almost a decade after private domestic airlines were allowed to fly overseas.
This would free up foreign flying rights reserved for AI which are not being utilised currently.
Two top government officials told The Indian Express that the move is in the works, and may be included in the new civil aviation policy. “Discussions were held in the ministry and broadly there is a consensus that bilateral rights should be freed, and be allotted to the interested airlines,” said one of them. The special privilege enjoyed by AI allows it the lone right to all seat capacity agreed to between India and any other country. If AI refuses, only then can the private airline stake a claim.
“Once the national carrier signed away these seats to others, they would be gone forever. In most cases, Air India would hold on to them, arguing that it is awaiting planes to deploy them on these routes on a later date,” said another official. But, he conceded, “It is a waste of a resource. An airline can’t hold it indefinitely.”
13/02/12 Smita Aggarwal /Indian Express

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Categories: Air India Feb 2012, Foreign Feb 2012